Tom Holland said he lost nearly a quarter of his body weight for a role.- Holland achieved this weight loss by crash dieting and running 10 miles per day in a trash bag.
Tom Holland said he wore a trash bag during runs to help him lose weight.
But the wardrobe choice would have only dehydrated him faster, according to an expert trainer.
The 24-year-old "Spider-Man" star told GQ he lost nearly a quarter of his body weight by crash dieting and running 10 miles per day while wearing a trash bag.
Wearing a trash bag while running is meant to induce greater amounts of sweat. It is a common trick used by wrestlers to make weight for meets, and other celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, have been seen running with a trash bag on in the past as well.
However,
"He lost weight by running 10 miles per day, the trash bag is 100% irrelevant, except it contributed to his state of dehydration," Boyle told Insider. "There's no weight loss benefit to trying to make yourself sweat more."
Holland's attempt to speed up weight loss might have been dangerous to his health
Wearing a trash bag can manipulate the body's cooling process. The trash bag prevents the sweat from evaporating, signaling the body to keep producing sweat in the hopes of lowering your body temperature, and ultimately causing the body to sweat more than a workout in typical gym clothes.
Expending water from the body may induce a lighter weight in the moment to help wrestlers make weight for a certain match, or even temporarily reduce bloating or puffiness for a person for a day or two. However, it doesn't equate to long-term fat loss.
The trash bag trick can even be dangerous since a person would be losing excessive amounts of water and electrolytes from sweating that much.
Dehydration can lead to fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and kidney damage, while losing too many electrolytes can lead to seizures.
Crash-dieting can be dangerous, especially combined with the trash bag method
By combining the dehydration from wearing the trash bag with crash dieting, Holland may have been dealing harmful blows to his energy levels.
Crash-dieting is when a person reduces the amount of food that they normally consume to minimal levels in order to achieve short-term weight loss. It can be effective at achieving that weight loss. But it also comes with potential side effects. It can drastically reduce the speed of your metabolism and lead to muscle breakdown, according to a study by the European Congress on Obesity.
Crash-dieting also means the body is not receiving all the minerals and vitamins it needs to maintain strong immune system, leaving someone more susceptible to illness and infection, according to WebMD.
Holland told GQ that his energy levels became very low and he felt burned out during the filming of "Cherry" earlier this year — which can be a side effect of crash-dieting.